GIS and Remote Sensing

Implications of GIS in Society

Geographic information systems (GISs) are becoming routine analysis and display tools for spatial data, used extensively in applications such as land-use mapping (for urban planning purposes), transportation mapping and analysis (for determining efficient transportation routes for deliveries and emergency response), geodemo graphic analysis (for facilities location), utilities infrastructure mapping (for precise gas, water, and electric line mapping), and multiple applications in natural resource assessment (including water quality assessment and wildlife habitat studies). GISs allow efficient and flexible storage, display, and exchange of certain kinds of spatial data, as well as potential interface opportunities for a variety of quantitative spatial analysis models. Users include: federal, state and local governments and their agencies, private firms, non-profit organizations, grassroots and community groups, universities, and research institutes. Yet, like all technologies, GIS co-evolves with the societies of which it is a part.